Firsts
by Andi88
Summary: It's a quiet Saturday at home for the first time in ages, when Emma receives some mail from her first foster family that will give her and Snow a surprising gift. Short one-shot of sheer fluffery!


**This is just a quick piece of Mother/Daughter fluff that I wrote today special for the awesome Davis Family Fan! She always leaves me the nicest reviews on my fics and I enjoy analyzing fics/the actual show with her! I meant to publish it earlier so she could enjoy it while in class, (because what ELSE are you supposed to do in day-long classes other than read fanfiction?) but I wasn't able to get it ready in time. But here it is anyway, and I hope you all like it!**

**Disclaimer: this is completely unrepentant Hallmark Channel-level sappiness. I am not in the least bit sorry. You have been warned. :)**

* * *

The sun rose to the most blissful Saturday she could remember in a very, very long time.

They were home from Neverland, Henry was safe and sound, and Peter Pan was defeated. Regina had been coexisting peacefully with the town quite well, much to Henry's joy, and Rumplestiltskin hadn't emerged from his pink house in days, happy to be holed up with Belle. (Charming liked to make the women of the household groan by speculating on what was going on in there.)

But all of that meant that it was the first Saturday in ages that there was no fighting, no evil specters, no journeys to other realms. Nothing but a normal, boring day.

And Snow was ecstatic over it.

After a discussion with Charming, she'd decided to take up teaching again, and the previous week had been her first back. The students seemed overjoyed to have her back, and it was the first time _ever _that she walked into a classroom of all new faces, as the fourth grade that she'd been teaching for twenty-eight years had finally graduated. All except for Henry, unfortunately. The boy was furious and embarrassed that he, decedent of royalty and sorcerers had to be held back a grade, but Snow felt strongly that he'd missed so much school since Emma came to Storybrooke that he needed the extra year to catch up, especially in math. She would have been willing to pull some strings to have him moved up, however, but both Emma and Regina agreed that he should repeat.

She didn't mind having another year with him in her class, however, as it was a chance to grow closer with him as his grandmother. And once he overcame the embarrassment, he too was happy to be with her. The new class was a bit star-struck. They weren't used to "Ms. Blanchard," so when they came in who they saw the fabled Snow White. And it was a double whammy, because they'd heard her tales back home as the outcast princess turned bandit, and in _this _world they had knowledge of the fanciful character plastered to clothing, backpacks and toys. Henry quickly learned that to be not only the oldest in class, but grandson to Snow White, meant he was top dog, and for the first time, was the most popular boy in class.

So Snow was definitely happy and content. They were preparing to move into a new house, and Emma had even agreed (after some wheedling) to move with them. That way they'd still be together, but they'd have space and privacy.

And Snow looked forward to privacy, because that meant that she and Charming could get started on a new member of the family.

It was still a sore subject for them. Emma fully accepted and even encouraged their desire to have another child, often and loudly proclaiming that she and Henry would be out late in case they wanted to have "tacos" for dinner. (This usually resulted in Snow throwing something at her.) But they all felt pangs of regret about it, because when and if a new baby came, he or she would be granted the life Emma _should _have had. Snow would get to share with them all the things she wanted to share with Emma, and it was hard. Unchangeable, but hard.

They still hadn't figured out how to be parents and child, instead of just friends. That she and Charming loved Emma, and that Emma loved them in return was never in question, neither was that they were _family_ in every sense of the word. But figuring out how to be mother and father to a grown woman wasn't easy. Snow could be her best friend, and Charming could be a sort of big brother, but they couldn't exactly be parents.

It was frustrating, but they were trying.

Snow was broken out of her thoughts and absent shuffling through mail when the front door opened.

Emma shuffled in, brushing snow off of her shoulders and shedding her thick coat and hat.

"Cold out?" Snow teased, smirking.

Emma narrowed her eyes, but it lost its effect surrounded by her frizzy hair, rosy cheeks and a nose so red it could almost glow. Snow would never, ever tell the woman to her face, but she looked sort of adorable.

"Little nippy, yeah," Emma agreed flatly. "It just started to you outside."

"Started to what?"

Emma chuckled. "You. It's you-ing outside. When it first started to fall, Henry yelled, 'Look! It's Grams-ing!'"

Snow groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh, I get it. Ha-ha."

"Couldn't resist, sorry. I have a feeling as princess you weren't teased for your name nearly enough. I'm making up for lost time."

Snow swatted her with an envelope and went back to sorting the mail. "So where are the boys?"

"Tending horses," Emma said. "Where did all that mail come from? Do we even _get _bills?"

"It's mostly junk-mail," Snow said. "All the local businesses are really getting their advertising in. Oh look, an advert for Gold's Pawn Shop."

Emma made a face. "He sent out advertisements? Seriously?"

"I have a feeling he didn't make these. It says, 'Come to Gold's Shop. I have your life. You might even walk out alive.' Oh, and the small print says, 'visit shop at own risk. Try to visit during hours the library is closed and Belle is more likely to be with Gold.'"

Emma laughed. "I bet Ruby did it."

Snow hung that particular advert on the refrigerator. "Hmm, this one's for you, Emma. From…" she caught sight of the return address seconds before Emma snatched it out of her hand. "From Odette Swan?"

Emma flashed a smile, but it was one of her strained, uncomfortable smiles. "Uh, yeah, she was my uh…well she was my first foster mother."

Snow was stunned into silence while Emma ripped the envelope open and read a short letter, more a note really, before pulling out a DVD in a white paper slip.

"Swan…" Snow began haltingly, trying to form her question carefully, knowing how easily Emma's walls flew up at the mere mention of her past. "So that's where…"

"…I got my name," Emma finished breathily, but her eyes were alight. She looked excited, not filled with dread like she usually was talking about herself. "They adopted me…well…took me in when I was four months old. Apparently they began the adoption process, but never finished it."

"Why?" Snow asked, and it was strained and desperate question, asking many things at once. She knew that Emma's first family gave her back to the children's home when she was only three years old. She knew that much only because Henry told her, but clammed up after he said it and told her that she'd have to go to Emma for the rest. She'd wanted to know for so long, even _before _the curse broke, but never knew quite how to ask. How, how could a family give her away? Evidently Emma's vague memories of them were good, so _why _give her up? She was only three! What could have happened that they would take her in, decide to _adopt_ her, then change their minds?

Emma stared at the DVD in her hand for a few moments before taking a deep breath. "They had a new kid," she said at last, not looking at her. "So they gave me back."

Snow's jaw dropped. That was _it_?! "They had a new baby so they gave you away? That makes absolutely no sense! You don't…you don't give up your _child_ because you have another one…what the hell is wrong with those people?!"

Emma smirked at Snow flare of temper, her expression reading that she'd thought much the same. "I snuck a look at my file once when I was ten, and apparently they'd been trying for years to have a baby and it never happened, so they decided to adopt. But then she got pregnant, right at the same time he lost his job. They couldn't afford two kids, and my adoption wasn't complete so…so they sent me back."

Snow was ready to hunt these _Swans_ down and beat them over the head with the flat side of a sword. They had _Emma,_ the most spectacular person she'd ever known, they raised her from the time she was an infant and got to enjoy all of her firsts. They had her _love _and _trust _and they destroyed it. They had it all! They were given the chance to have everything that Snow had so desperately wanted with that golden-haired angel and they threw it away. Money or no money, one does not get _rid _of a child as if she were a pet.

"I remember my last day with them," Emma said, her voice distant and melancholy. "She held me in her lap and told me that I would have a brand new family before I knew it, that I didn't have to worry. I just didn't understand though, I didn't get why _they _couldn't keep me. I think I thought…I dunno, I kind of believed then that I could only have a family for a little while. That it was just the way things worked. It wasn't until that day that I even realized they weren't my real parents. For years I kept thinking they'd come back for me."

Snow couldn't resist anymore, she threw her arms around Emma's shoulders and squeezed tight. After a moment Emma's arms came up and wrapped loosely around her waist. All at once Snow's words back in that Echo Cave came back to kick her in the ass. She'd basically said that she wanted a baby to replace Emma, and in a way that is what she meant. She didn't want a replacement for Emma, _no one_ could ever replace her. She just wanted a baby to take the place of the one she didn't get to raise. And now here she found out that the only family Emma ever really considered hers gave her up because they had a baby of their own.

Snow was ready to beat _herself_ over the head with the flat end of a sword.

"Emma, honey," she murmured into her daughter's ear. "You know that…that if we have another baby…"

"No!" Emma exclaimed, pulling back. "Please, no, that's not the same. I _want _you to have more kids, you deserve it. I know you wouldn't have…I meant if it hadn't been our lives at stake…"

"Emma, no matter what happens, you will _always _be mine," she said, clutching Emma's shoulders and then chuckled lightly. "Even when you don't particularly want to be, you're _mine_. You will always be my daughter, and I will always, _always _love and want you."

Emma smiled weakly, brushing quickly at her face to catch any escape tears. "I know. Amazingly enough, I _know. _Now, do you want to see what's on this DVD or not?"

She'd forgotten all about the DVD, but Snow nodded and allowed Emma to lead her to the sitting area were their small TV was set up.

"I wrote to them," Emma said. "Told them I was happy, had a family, all that, and I just wanted to know if they had anything that I could show my family. Any pictures or anything. She told me what's on the DVD in the letter, and I think you're gonna like it!"

Suddenly Snow's heart was thundering and excitement flooded her veins. Was it a video of Emma as a baby? Emma only had a precious few photographs of herself as a child, and none before the age of five, save for the grainy newspaper clipping from when she was found.

The screen crackled and there was a blur of motion as the videographer adjusted the camera.

"_How does this thing work?" _a female voice said on screen. "_Now hold on, I don't want to miss this!"_

Finally the picture cleared and Snow stifled a sob into her hands when her eyes landed on a chubby, rosy-cheeked baby holding herself up on the edge of a sofa. Her wispy blonde curls framed her face, making her look like an angel. She grinned wide and toothlessly at the camera and bounced in eagerness.

"_Come on, Emma, come on! You can do it! Come to Mama!"_

Emma babbled and squealed and continued to bounce, but made no effort to take a step.

"Emma…" Snow whimpered, not daring to blink lest she miss anything. She lowered her hands from her face and felt warm fingers lace with her own, squeezing tight. She could barely believe what she was seeing. That was her baby! _Her _baby!

It took several minutes of encouragement, but Emma in the video finally started to let go of the couch, wobbling precariously.

"_That's it! You can do it, Emma!"_

"You can do it…" Snow whispered, not even caring that she was talking to a TV. The hand holding hers squeezed tighter, and without looking Snow brought their joined hands to her lap, holding Emma's with both of hers to prevent herself for reaching for the television.

The baby Emma's face scrunched up in concentration, and Snow let out a watery laugh at how very familiar that look was. Emma chuckled in agreement beside her.

Finally, the tiny little hands released the cushion, and she stood on her own two unstable feet, brow knitted, focused entirely on taking that first step…

She took one, and then another, and Snow couldn't even hear the woman in the video cheering because she was too busy crying out her own joy.

Emma squealed with laughter, almost losing her balance, but she made it the short distance from the couch to the coffee table, four whole steps, and she slapped her hands down on the surface in victory.

"_Yay Emma! You did it! You walked! Good girl!"_

Emma wasn't even paying attention to her foster mother, however, but was patting and babbling loudly at a brightly colored book resting on the table.

"No way…" Emma murmured beside her, but Snow didn't dare tear her eyes from the screen in order to look at her or ask what was wrong.

The answer came soon though, because a hand emerged from behind the camera to pick up what the baby was so thrilled to make it to. It wasn't a book at all, but a VHS tape.

"_Oh, I see, you want to watch your favorite movie, don't you? Leave it to you, Emma to take your first steps to a video tape!"_

The voice was laughing and teasing but not unhappy, and she held the video up for the camera to see.

"No…" Snow said in utter disbelief.

"_Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Put it on the record that Emma took her first steps for Snow White_."

Snow did look away then, at her stunned daughter beside her and their eyes met. They stared at each other for a long moment before breaking out into sobbing laughter.

"I had no idea," Emma said. "I didn't…"

"I saw your first steps," Snow cried. "Emma I saw your first steps!"

Emma smiled and rested her head on Snow's shoulder. "Yeah you did, Mom. And apparently I was walking toward you the whole time."

Snow laughed in joy and wrapped her arms securely around her daughter, while Emma surprised her by only snuggling down further.

"Now keep watching," Emma said. "According to the letter we have a first birthday, along with a second and third, some first words, and a pony ride to see."

Snow watched the rest of the home videos with Emma, then watched them again with Charming and they both cried. Then she watched them again with the whole family, including Henry, and over and over and over again.

Her first word was "No," (no surprise,) she rubbed her first birthday cake into her hair, was throwing too big of a tantrum to eat her second, and flung pieces of her third at her foster father. And the pony ride was an adventure filled with squealing and giggling and yanking on the poor animal's mane. There were also videos of Halloweens and Christmases and Easters with frilly dresses and even (to Emma's dismay) potty training.

She didn't think she'd ever get tired of watching it, so she made Charming buy a camcorder, because there were bound to be more firsts to capture in their little family's life.


End file.
